Just as I suspected. I'm almost certain Canada will sub in Pospisil for Dancevic if the 5th rubber proves decisive. Smart move keeping him fresher for the doubles match and the singles tie where he'll have a much better chance of pulling off an upset....having him waste his energy in a probably hopeless match against Granollers on Day 1 would have been pretty stupid.

Needless to say, Milos needs to win both singles. Since it's on his favourite surface against 2 lower-ranked players, he has no excuse not to.

Best chance for Canada to get the 3rd point and pull off the upset may be the final singles between Popisil and Ramos. Popisil would be the clear underdog, but Ramos is only about #50 in the world, so it really wouldn't be that huge an upset considering it's on indoor HCs in Canada. I'm also not sure if Ramos has a lot of big match experience....in a decisive leg, there could be a ton of pressure on him to avoid a first round loss for a team that has dominated the DC over the last 5 years, whereas Popisil might feel he has much less to lose.

Asked who his singles players will be for this weekend’s World Group first round tie at UBC, Spain’s captain, Alex Corretja, looked at the players flanking him at the press conference and replied, “One of these four.”

Then, just to hammer home the pointlessness of the question, he added with a laugh: “Don’t underestimate Lopez.”

That would be Marc Lopez, one half of Spain’s sensational doubles team and the one player who can clearly be ruled out for a singles match, considering he last played one on tour two years ago.

So, when it comes to Canada’s doubles team on Saturday, for what is often the turning point of a Davis Cup tie, any piece of information must be viewed with a certain skepticism.

“They’re probably the second best [doubles] team over the last year,” Nestor said when asked about the Spanish duo. “They’ve been very consistent. They’ve had bad luck with injuries at inopportune times — in the semifinals of the last two Grand Slams. I haven’t had much success against them, so hopefully playing with Vasek will turn that around.”

Was it an accidental slip? Hard to see that. Nestor has been around the block a few times. A bit of gamesmanship? A vote of confidence?

It felt like the latter, though Canadian captain Martin Laurendeau followed it up with a non-committal response (see rule one).

Nestor will certainly have as much, if not more, say than Laurendeau when it comes to picking his partner.

There was plenty of intrigue around the decision last February against France. Pospisil was announced as the partner at the official draw on the Thursday, but Nestor came out on Saturday with singles stud Milos Raonic instead.

Lineups can change up to an hour before the match.

Based on recent Davis Cup form, there’s no obvious choice. Nestor and Raonic lost in three sets to Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra in February, effectively ending Canada’s hopes of advancing in that tie.

Then, in the September playoff in Montreal to get back into the World Group for 2013, Nestor and Pospisil fell surprisingly in three sets to South Africa’s Izak Van Der Merwe and Raven Klaasen.

Canada still advanced 4-1, which brought them to this weekend.

Against France, Laurendeau said the decision was largely down to how well Raonic played in his Friday singles romp over Benneteau, and how much Pospisil struggled in his match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Perhaps Friday this week will again carry significant weight, that is if Laurendeau goes with Pospisil, 22, in singles, as opposed to veteran Frank Dancevic, who showed well against Tsonga in February when Raonic pulled out of Sunday’s singles with swelling in his knee.

And as for that knee, might the way the France tie turned out scare Laurendeau off the idea of using Raonic all three days? Seems plausible.

Pospisil, meanwhile, is coming off a bout of mono in mid-December and hasn’t played a tour match in 2013.

He says he’s feeling great. He lost some weight, but that was the off-season play anyway.

Plenty to chew on.

One thing’s for sure: Laurendeau knows Saturday could be the key to a historic berth in the World Group quarterfinals. Canada would host the winner of Italy and Croatia.

“We’ll spend as much time as we can preparing the doubles,” Laurendeau said recently. “They [Lopez and Granollers] play a bit awkwardly — one guy up and one guy back — so, they’re very tricky to play but, in the end, we believe in our strength.

“Daniel is still a top-five doubles player. He’ll have to play his best tennis. He hasn’t in the last two ties.”

Neither has Pospisil, Canada’s Davis Cup workhorse hero in Israel in September 2011, a victory that lifted them back into the World Group for the first time since 2004.

Pospisil also partnered Nestor at the 2012 Olympics. They lost in the second round, 11-9 in the third set, to No. 3 seeds Nenad Zimonjic and Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia.

Their familiarity should be worth as much as Raonic’s cannon serve.

“Daniel and I didn’t play well against South Africa but that was probably only our one bad match together,” said Pospisil, No. 131 in singles. “We had a tough loss in the Olympics but were just a few points away.

“In South Africa, maybe up 2-0 [in the tie] we were too overconfident and that’s something to learn from. It was just one of those days.

“I’m very eager to go back on the court and I think being so fresh can be a big advantage, even though I haven’t had matches lately.”

Pospisil would love a chance to play hero on home soil this time. He says he’s ready, after admittedly being overwhelmed by the occasion last time out at home.

“I don’t really have any doubts that I’m going to handle it better and better,” he said. “Generally, I feed off the home crowds very well.”

Will he get the chance? Nestor says so. Read into that whatever you will.

Solid win for Raonic but not nearly as comfortable as it should have been. This is Raonic, though. Matches against guys like Hajek and Ramos are still going to be interesting and not exactly cake walks.

On the flip side, though, I believe Raonic tends to raise his game as the competition gets tougher. I'm looking for a much better effort against Granollers.

Up next: Dancevic vs Granollers. Granollers is the clear favourite but Dancevic is a damn good Davis Cup player. This is a big match for Canada.

Solid win for Raonic but not nearly as comfortable as it should have been. This is Raonic, though. Matches against guys like Hajek and Ramos are still going to be interesting and not exactly cake walks.

On the flip side, though, I believe Raonic tends to raise his game as the competition gets tougher. I'm looking for a much better effort against Granollers.

Up next: Dancevic vs Granollers. Granollers is the clear favourite but Dancevic is a damn good Davis Cup player. This is a big match for Canada.

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popcorn match for sure. I just asked ramos about the court surface and how fast it plays. his answer:'raonic makes any court look fast'

Dancevic breaks in the 2nd, and consolidates next game! Frank coming out strong. Granollers had better wake up or Spain is going to be living from match to match for the rest of the weekend.

I am going to Sunday's session. Originally when we got the tickets (3-day package, but other family members are going days 1 & 2) I was thinking I would only be seeing exhibition style matches with powerhouse Spain clinching with the dubs on Saturday. Then with Spain's final roster I was thinking Sunday was for sure going to rock the house with a decider being played at some point. The way it's going now Spain has work to do to just keep alive to Sunday, so that it's not back to exhibition mode (but for Canada :shock

I still think Frank will cool down eventually and Granollers will grind it out in the end, but this is quite the turn of events. The question is how Frank reacts mentally once his level inevitably drops a couple of notches.

I still think Frank will cool down eventually and Granollers will grind it out in the end, but this is quite the turn of events. The question is how Frank reacts mentally once his level inevitably drops a couple of notches.

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Ya, Frank may hurt his back on the next point and retire, but he's in this tie as the opportunist to gt whatever he can, whenever he can. So far, he's sure giving us that and then some.

Frank could cool off, Granollers could steady and reel it all the way back in, but it's an awfully big mountain to climb at this stage.

This is unbelievable. It looked like he was finally falling back to earth that first service game of the set, then he saves 2 BPs and just keeps rolling. How on earth is he #165 in the world right now?

Edit: After trailing 0-1 in the 3rd set and facing 2 BPs, he's now up 4-1. Only 8 winners from the finish line.

The crazy thing is that the stats show he served solidly at 65% first serves in, 78% and 44% won on 1st /2nd serves respectively. On his good days, which he has had a number of over the years, that's nothing new. But... he bagged 53% of total receiving points, all on a medium fast court! WTH? It's not like Frank has ever had much of a return game. Somebody did a brain swap with Ferrer or something.

Monumental win for Canadian tennis right there. Wow! I didn't watch it - had other obligations - but I pretty much jumped out of my seat when I came home and checked the result! I don't think anybody expected Dancevic to win this but like I said earlier in this thread, he has proven to be an excellent Davis Cup player.

Unbelievably, this is actually Canada's tie to lose. Nestor and Pospisil will be in tough tomorrow against a very good Spanish doubles team in Granollers / Lopez but as the Canadians proved today, they're no pushovers and not to be underestimated. I still worry that Granollers will magically return to form and give Raonic a tough time IF it gets to that point, but can't put the cart before the horse here. The focus is on tomorrow's doubles match.

I recorded the entire match from behind the baseline of Raonic. I went though 3 batteries and used 18GB. I used my second camera for Dancevic, but that one overheated after 58 minutes. I should have used the first camera.

For some strange reason Raonic's serve looked slow. I heard people say it's like a bullet, but that was not the case from the back.